Man gets 70-year sentence for molesting girls, plotting deaths

A former youth volunteer has been sentenced to 70 years in prison for molesting three girls and then plotting to kill them and the child he believed he fathered.

Jonathan Hartman, 30, Indianapolis, pleaded guilty Monday to seven felony charges as part of a plea agreement with the Johnson County Prosecutor’s Office that was approved by a judge.

Hartman abused his position of trust at The Salvation Army Church in Greenwood to seduce three teenage girls, Prosecutor Brad Cooper said. The girls were 13, 14 and 15 when they started having sex with Hartman, according to a probable-cause affidavit.

Two of the victims’ mothers read statements during the hearing in Johnson County Superior Court 3 that detailed the effect Hartman had on their daughters.

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